Wireless radio includes a transmit path and a receive path. If these paths are simply tied together loading offset occurs. This loading effect may degrade the transmit path output match and cause a reduction in power output during transmission. Furthermore, the loading may degrade the receive path input match and cause an increase in receive path noise.
Conventional wireless radios require an external transmit/receive (T/R) switch to prevent harmful loading effects between transmit path and the receive path. Fully integrated T/R switches require on-chip matching of both the transmit path and the receive path front-ends. This adds additional loss on both the transmit path and the receive path. Usually these switches are external to the integrated circuit. In so doing there are associated cost and board space penalties.
Accordingly, what is desired is to provide a system and method that overcomes the above issues. The present invention addresses such a need.